Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not going to be asking any questions. I would, though, like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Tlicho people on this, the final piece of legislation, to launch their self-government into action.

All the time I have watched them since I have arrived in the North, I have noticed that the Tlicho leadership, the families and communities have got a powerful history of supporting education and learning. I think that shows in the success that we see of young people in that region. The Tlicho have consistently put their organization’s money into scholarships and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government stands committed to regional involvement with communities or regional and community involvement in the justice process, and that’s why we have community justice committees. That’s why we’re adding funding for the community justice committees to be involved in justice. We are also committed because we support the courts to travel to each and every community to conduct the courts as they are necessary.

Mr. Speaker, when we’re talking about Dene K’onia, I don’t disagree that we have tremendous programming and tremendous staff resources there, but, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, that facility has been the only facility that’s had male young offenders in it since March of this past year, so March 2004. The reason for doing that, Mr. Speaker, was to ensure that we placed all of the open custody young offenders in the one facility as a means of saving some money. We can’t close the facility in Yellowknife, it’s a dual facility, half of it is for secure custody and the other half is open custody, we can’t achieve the same level of savings. We did reduce the costs over the course of the last year by not utilizing the open custody section...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I meet with the RCMP, drugs are certainly an issue that we talk about. I think it’s important to remember that there is a section in the RCMP that deals with drug trafficking and they are federally-funded positions. I have been working with Chief Superintendent Summerfield to pressure the federal government to make sure that all of those positions are filled and active in the Northwest Territories, and I will continue to make the point with the RCMP that we do need to be very vigilant on drugs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously numbers have fluctuated. Within the last year, the numbers have been quite reduced. It’s in the order of an average of between one and three, depending on the week. The numbers I reported were for the last couple of weeks. So, of course, it has fluctuated. The numbers that have been in Dene K’onia since March last year have ranged as high as six or seven at times, but they haven’t all been from the South Slave. A good number of the clients, probably a majority of the clients from the past year, have probably been from regions north of the lake. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The positions on the highway patrol unit are two for Hay River and one for Yellowknife. The other positions, as I understand it, there would be about six positions that would go between Rae and Yellowknife and some other communities. But I believe the Member is most interested in the highway positions. I’d just like to make sure that the Member knows that the RCMP officers who would be dedicated to highway patrols would also have cross-training and specific training in drug interdiction. So there is training that is provided to highway patrol officers to ensure...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not inclined to agree to that right now, but it is something…I will double check the figures myself and endeavour to show the Member where we can demonstrate the savings. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t say whether there’s going to be any positions added to the North Slave Correctional Centre or whether a request will come forward for additional staff. I haven’t seen the human resources plan. I know the department has been working on one with the assistance of an individual from British Columbia, but I haven’t yet been provided with that report if it has been finished. There have been some recommendations by corrections officers who have worked for the federal system out of Fenbrook Institution in Ontario. They did recommend that we increase some staffing in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am satisfied that the magnitude of savings are there. We are going to take $400,000 less in this year’s budget. That’s what we are talking about. Even if the department was wrong by $50,000, and I don’t think they are, I just picked the $300,000, $400,000 or $500,000 just out of the air. Even if those are the numbers, it will be plus or minus over the $400,000 that we are going to save. It may not be exactly $400,000.

The Member asked about human resources costs. The cost to supervise an inmate at the North Slave Correctional Centre is $38.57 a day. At the South...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We can accommodate the prisoners who would be housed in the remand facility in Hay River in the North Slave Correctional Centre. There is room for them. We don’t have to move them here. This is being undertaken as a cost-savings measure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.